Monday, November 12, 2012

It started on Monday. Just an ordinary day eating an ordinary dinner, but the conversation triggered it. Danny asked whose house they were going to be at for Christmas to which I replied it'd be mine. Henry immediately declared that he was sad about this. He was very matter-of-fact. He wanted us all to be together.

Ouch. Ouch for him. Ouch for me.

Out of nowhere that little nugget became an avalanche of emotion. Completely caught off guard, I found myself buried thinking only of the death of my forever dreams. And it was an incredibly hard couple of days.

At some point I realized it was exactly a year ago that Mike decided he was done and called it quits. I remember the timing exactly because it was the Friday before the Eukel dinner, a charity event we had been attending together since 1995. But last year I attended alone. It was both sad and surprisingly enjoyable.

And of course everything is all about Thanksgiving (now that the election is over - yay!). Last year we celebrated Thanksgiving as a family, minus one very important person. It was awkward. It also was very sad.

And here I am today. Thinking about all this. Realizing how completely altered my world is now. Imagine if you will, the house that was your home destroyed by forces of nature - wild fire, hurricane, earthquake - whatever disaster comes to mind. Luckily you lived through it, but all that remained was a huge mess. Even though you were overwhelmed by the loss, you still managed to put one foot in front of the other and eventually had a tidy pile of rubble. And then it was time to rebuild.

Here I am. My new house is framed. The walls are up, but bare. There is a smattering of furniture, the minimum really. It's rather nondescript inside and feels hollow. It doesn't feel like home. Not yet.

Somehow I managed to get through last week. I mustered up the energy to do dinner with great girl friends Friday night. Saturday morning I did my first race in what feels like forever, and then basically spent the rest of the day in bed watching a bad movie. It was awesome. Sunday was golf and I cooked a dinner enjoyed by all, something that always makes me happy.

But what I did that mattered most was writing this post. I didn't hit publish on Friday night. I was too exhausted. The post was too raw and full of the emotion engulfing me. But writing those emotions out, making them make sense on "paper", it helped me process.

By the time I was done spilling my "whoa is me" I was done with being "whoa is me" and instead could see things differently. Yes my life is completely altered from what it was, but look at where I am today compared with a year ago! I'm not in limbo. I am not on the precipice of destruction and the unknown. I am no longer waiting for the hurricane to hit and instead I'm rebuilding. It's okay. I'm okay. I think I'm better than okay.

It started on Monday. Just an ordinary day eating an ordinary dinner, but the conversation triggered it. Danny asked whose house they were going to be at for Christmas to which I replied it'd be mine. Henry immediately declared that he was sad about this. He was very matter-of-fact. He wanted us all to be together.

Ouch. Ouch for him. Ouch for me.

Out of nowhere that little nugget became an avalanche of emotion. Completely caught off guard, I found myself buried thinking only of the death of my forever dreams. And it was an incredibly hard couple of days.

At some point I realized it was exactly a year ago that Mike decided he was done and called it quits. I remember the timing exactly because it was the Friday before the Eukel dinner, a charity event we had been attending together since 1995. But last year I attended alone. It was both sad and surprisingly enjoyable.

And of course everything is all about Thanksgiving (now that the election is over - yay!). Last year we celebrated Thanksgiving as a family, minus one very important person. It was awkward. It also was very sad.

And here I am today. Thinking about all this. Realizing how completely altered my world is now. Imagine if you will, the house that was your home destroyed by forces of nature - wild fire, hurricane, earthquake - whatever disaster comes to mind. Luckily you lived through it, but all that remained was a huge mess. Even though you were overwhelmed by the loss, you still managed to put one foot in front of the other and eventually had a tidy pile of rubble. And then it was time to rebuild.

Here I am. My new house is framed. The walls are up, but bare. There is a smattering of furniture, the minimum really. It's rather nondescript inside and feels hollow. It doesn't feel like home. Not yet.

Somehow I managed to get through last week. I mustered up the energy to do dinner with great girl friends Friday night. Saturday morning I did my first race in what feels like forever, and then basically spent the rest of the day in bed watching a bad movie. It was awesome. Sunday was golf and I cooked a dinner enjoyed by all, something that always makes me happy.

But what I did that mattered most was writing this post. I didn't hit publish on Friday night. I was too exhausted. The post was too raw and full of the emotion engulfing me. But writing those emotions out, making them make sense on "paper", it helped me process.

By the time I was done spilling my "whoa is me" I was done with being "whoa is me" and instead could see things differently. Yes my life is completely altered from what it was, but look at where I am today compared with a year ago! I'm not in limbo. I am not on the precipice of destruction and the unknown. I am no longer waiting for the hurricane to hit and instead I'm rebuilding. It's okay. I'm okay. I think I'm better than okay.

About Me

I am an East Coast girl living in Northern California. I do technology and parent kids. I'm an expert skier, amateur pool player and hacker at golf. Oh, and I love to bake. This blog is my creative outlet.